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GTA congestion and lack of infrastructure have high costs

The Greater Toronto Area's traffic congestion and lack of transit mean residents cannot easily get from one part of the city to another.

Less traffic congestion and better transit in the GTA would give residents more access to a larger labour market as well as a wider pool of friends and entertainment opportunities. (RICK MADONIK / STAR file photo)

By Benjamin Dachis

Thu., July 18, 2013

I’ve probably never met you. You’ve probably never met me. But if, like me, you live in the Greater Toronto Area, my life is better because of you. If congestion on our roads and a lack of transit infrastructure means that people who live in one part of the city have difficulty reaching other parts of the city, then the costs of congestion are much higher than you’ve been told.

Transportation infrastructure enables people to come together from a wide area to meet and use the same facilities.

For example, if you are part of the fan base that supports the Blue Jays, you use Toronto Pearson airport or you take public transit, then you are part of what keeps these operations going. If not for all of you, these things wouldn’t have a big enough market to exist.

However, that’s only the case if many people are able to access the same places. If you live in Markham, the Rogers Centre may as well be in Montreal given how long it takes you to get downtown. What good are you to me and all other Blue Jays fans in helping pay Jose Bautista’s salary if you can’t make it downtown and don’t buy a ticket?

It is easier to share ideas in person than by any other means, and people learn faster when they are around other people. If traffic congestion means you aren’t able to make an in-person meeting or a class, that’s an additional cost of congestion.

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A boutique store that would only exist if potential customers across the city could reach it would shut down if it was limited to only a small pocket of nearby customers.

Less congestion will mean you have access to a larger labour market. That will mean that you are less dependent on your current employer and can more easily switch to another job that better matches your skills.

With traffic congestion snarling Toronto, trips from many parts of the city are becoming so onerous as to prevent many of the above benefits.

Access to a wider pool of friends, jobs and entertainment opportunities in the city would be lost because getting there would take too long. The costs of not being able to take advantage of the benefits of urban living add considerably to the oft-cited estimates of the cost of congestion.

Around the world, and here in Canada, when people are surrounded by more people, their incomes increase. The evidence shows that doubling the size of the accessible labour market surrounding any Torontonian could increase that person’s income by about 4 per cent.

Decreasing congestion can mean access to more and better-paying jobs, and people being more productive at their existing jobs.

I estimate that the additional economic benefits of significantly reducing congestion, enabling people to access a wider urban area, are in the range of $1.5 billion to $5 billion per year.

Governments and Metrolinx should select projects and prioritize them by taking into account which projects are most effective at connecting the most people. Some transportation projects will rise up the list and others will fall — they are hugely expensive and costs may exceed the benefits — making smart choices important.

If governments start thinking about transportation infrastructure as the glue that binds urban connections, that will help policy-makers decide which projects are most worthwhile and which are best left on the drawing board.

Benjamin Dachis is a Senior Policy Analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute. He is the author of Cars, Costs and Congestion: A New Approach to Evaluating Government Infrastructure Investment.

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